


Rose and Bramble

by Kiryienka



Series: Return of Monsters [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Blood, Broken Bones, Gen, Mentions of Suicide, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-11-21
Packaged: 2019-01-31 10:11:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12679743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiryienka/pseuds/Kiryienka
Summary: They wanted to rid their mind of the horrors that danced in their memories. However, the world decided that their story was not yet finished, and only time would tell if it was for better or worse...





	1. Wanderlust

**Author's Note:**

> I implore you to read Lost before attempting to read this, otherwise you will probably be quite, well, lost. I know it's over a year old now, just bear with me.
> 
> The first half takes place about a week after the events of Lost, the second during. Most chapters will be arranged like this.

It took nothing to convince them to set out on this journey. There was no telling where their destination was. All that mattered was that it was as far away from their former home as possible. The burials alone had taken a huge emotional toll, let alone the rest of the events that took place. It was time, they decided, to distance themself from the castle's memories, good and bad. They would try to start from scratch, they supposed, not knowing what the world had planned for them.

They had walked and camped three days and nights so far. As they got deeper into the forest, their sense of isolation and loneliness grew immensely. Added to the fact that they did not know the whereabouts of any settlements in the region, they began to feel more and more hopeless. Why had all of this happened? Why was everything they loved taken away so brutally? Was it their fault? Maybe they should have never gone to investigate the white blur on the treeline that fateful day.

As they sunk further into their thoughts, they gradually became less aware of their surroundings. They meandered aimlessly in what was vaguely a straight line, as far as they could tell without consulting their map. They were so lost in thought that they almost didn't notice the voice call out from behind them. “Hey! Watch it, you could've crushed me!”

Frisk turned around to find that, to their surprise, they had just been called out by a flower. A golden flower, similar to the ones in the castle garden, but with faded colours, thorns along its stem, and a mildly irritated face. “I'm s... I... what?” Maybe they were hallucinating. Or maybe they had died in these woods and this was their Purgatory. Whatever the case, they were fairly certain this was not real, though considering the past few months they didn't have a good reason to think so.

“What 'what'? You nearly stepped on me, how much clearer do I have to be? Or do you speak a foreign language or something?”

Regardless of whether this was real or not, Frisk decided to play along. Any conversation was welcome to them right now, even if it was with someone so... abrasive. “I'm really sorry, I was just a bit preoccupied.”

“Too preoccupied to even look where you're going, apparently... Actually, where even are you going? The nearest town is weeks away, I don't know how you plan to reach there with your dwindling rations there.” He was right, Frisk realized. The supplies they had left would maybe last a few more days at best.

“To be honest, I didn't really have a plan on where to go, but I hoped that I'd at least be able to restock sooner than that.”

The flower stared Frisk down with a face of... frustration? No, it was more of confusion now. “Gosh, you are hopeless aren't you... Okay, hear what. There's a trade junction not that far, probably around three days' travel if you're efficient with your time. I guess I'll lead you there, since you apparently either don't have a map or don't know how to read the one you do have.”

They didn't really want to admit their trouble with the map, but didn't argue against the flower's statements anyway. “Alright, thank you so much. Uh... do you have a name I can call you by?”

“Actually no- lower your arm, it'll be much faster if I can perch there.” They obliged and watched as he uprooted himself and wrapped his stem – which was more like a vine – around their arm. Oddly enough, no pain was felt from the clearly visible thorns. “Anyway, no, I actually don't have a name. Well, I can only remember anything up to about a week ago, so maybe I had one, but... I'm a plant, I don't think anyone went out of their way to name me.”

“... Are you, though? I mean, actually a plant? You can talk!”

“If I had the answer to that question I'd give it to you, but the only thing I know for sure is I look like a flower, so I guess I'm a flower.”

“But I still need something to call you.”

“I don't know, 'Flowey'?” Frisk tried not to twist their face at the terrible suggestion, without much success. “Alright, alright, you come up with something if you're so clever!”

“How about 'Bramble'? You've had quite a _thorny_ attitude since I met you...” At that moment, they started to feel pain in their arm from the thorns. Not too much, and nothing that would break skin. Just enough to give a warning.

“Don't start with me, you were the one not looking where you were going, understand?” The flower, which Frisk supposed should now be called Flowey, rolled his eyes and looked off into the distance. “And to think, I'm here helping you when you're probably completely lost. I've been practically a saint this whole time.”

Frisk decided that they best placate Flowey in order to get to the trade junction as soon as possible. “Alright... Flowey. You're right, I should have been more careful. Would you please forgive me?”

“... Alright, I guess no harm done. But seriously though, don't call me 'Bramble' again please. Anyway, I don't have your name either. Unless you also don't have a name, what a turn of events that would be.”

They couldn't help but let out a light giggle at that comment. “Don't worry, I have one. It's Frisk.”

“Frisk... isn't that an interesting name. Well, Frisk, I suppose we can set off any time you're ready.”

“Lead the way.”

  
  


  
  


“ _I'm sure you know very well that I do not like having you around,” Chara said casually._

“ _Yes, that I do,” Asriel replied equally as nonchalantly as he lit the oven with next to no difficulty. Chara was always a bit impressed by this, but also a bit jealous, normally spending tens of minutes attempting to light it themself._

“ _As true as that is, I must say at least once, you have been very helpful around here.”_

“ _... Is this still Chara I'm speaking to?” Asriel joked as he crawled out from the oven. “Well, thank you very much, but I think getting_ you _to say something kind is not something I've earned with small house tasks.”_

“ _Well, it is not just that. You have been here only a brief amount of time so far, yet I see Frisk's mood has changed notably. Maybe it is about time they got to interact with someone not so negative as myself.”_

“ _... Thank you, Chara. And, if I may, I don't think you're too negative. I understand the concerns you've had about me, and you're only trying to protect yourself and Frisk. I can only say that I greatly appreciate being allowed to stay here as long as I have, even though it's only been a few weeks so far. I truly only want to help – after all, I am indebted to you both for saving me.”_

“ _And thank you Asriel. Now, I can handle the rest of this myself. I am sure Frisk would welcome your company in the garden today. Do you know anything about gardening?”_

_Asriel couldn't help but perk up at the mention of gardening. “Oh yes, I spent a lot of time as a child working with a small garden. I'd be happy to help there.”_

“ _Alright, you can go on your way then. If you do not mind, I would like to hear more about your childhood at some point later on.”_

_Asriel simply nodded and went on his way to the front entrance. Chara watched the flame, lost in its dancing embers and their own thoughts. Was it justified for them to still be worried? It had been quite some time since Asriel first arrived, and nothing had happened yet. Maybe, for once, they were being too paranoid. Maybe they would do well to give him some slack. But, for now at least, they would remain as they were. They would tolerate him being here. If too much were to go wrong, however, they would be forced to change their tune._

 


	2. Turmoil

“I still can't say I understand why you've just been wandering, for days! Did you not think for a moment that that would come back to bite you?” Flowey had been trying to figure out the oddity that was Frisk for a little over an hour now, and they remained evasive on their reasoning up to this point. Now, however, they could feel the wear from days of stress and fatigue, and eventually started to give up some information.

“As I said, I didn't really have a plan. I... I had to leave my home. I had some... recent memories that I had to leave behind.” Flowey seemed to become more attentive at this. “I guess I wasn't really in quite sound mind to be doing something like this, but I guess life worked out in the end.”

“Hmm, well I can't say I'm not curious about what happened, but if you don't want to go into detail, I get it. Sorry.”

Frisk looked down at the flower on their arm. He seemed a little disappointed, but more concerned than anything, despite what they thought were his best efforts to hide it. “Thank you, Flowey. If we're still together long enough, I want to tell you eventually. It's just... too recent. I still have to deal with it right now.”

“That's alright, we all have our weights we have to carry... I'd love to segue into another topic to lighten the mood, just give me a second.”

They smiled a bit, but didn't let out any laughter this time. “I don't know, maybe you could just ask me questions.”

“Questions about what?”

“I don't know. About me? about where I lived? Maybe there's some general knowledge I could offer?”

“Well, let me just say, that sounds fairly boring.” Frisk pouted at Flowey, less because he didn't seem onboard with the idea and more out of personal offense. “That said, it's better than walking in silence.”

“I thought you might see reason.”

“Well, alright, let's think of good questions.” Flowey stayed silent in thought for a few moments, rocking back and forth and moving his stem around Frisk's arm. It felt unusual, but at the same time strangely natural, like walking hand in hand. Finally he seemed to have something. “So, why do you live in the middle of nowhere anyway? How did that come to pass?”

Frisk thought for a moment before beginning their answer, being careful not to mention Chara or Asriel in fear of a breakdown. “I don't remember a lot of my younger years. I lived in an abandoned castle for as long as I can remember. As I learned it, it used to be part of a town that housed humans and monsters.”

“Monsters? Huh, that's a weird thing to think about. Maybe _that's_ what I am.”

Now they finally let out a small sound. It was about the bare minimum of a laugh, but it was close enough, and Flowey noticed. “Maybe you are, I hadn't considered it.”

“Well then... You were really isolated your whole life? Never came across any wanderers like yourself?”

Frisk was fairly quick in figuring out where this idea of theirs was likely going. Whatever they tried, eventually it would always come back to those two. They finally decided, despite their higher interests, to try and address it quickly and then move on. “We... we had-”

“We?”

“... Yes. I lived with one other person... We had... we had one traveler... while we were there.” Tears started to well up, but stayed in their eyes at the moment, out of Flowey's present attention as he switched focus between Frisk and the direction of travel.

“I see. And what was that like, meeting an outsider for the first time?” Finally he looked again at their face, only to witness tears on the verge of bursting. “Wh... what is it? Is something wrong?”

Until now, Frisk was able to stay relatively calm if at most depressed. But now, something about remembering the events that took place from the start had flipped a switch in their head. They kept stepping absentmindedly, but very quickly stumbled on a tree root and came to the ground with a thud.

“Frisk? Are you alright? … Is it...”

“Why did all of this happen?” They were shouting now. The floodgates were opened, and Flowey waited calmly for the wave to pass. “Why did they... why... They both...” Nothing more was comprehensible after this. Frisk just continued screaming and sobbing, unleashing the emotions that had built up in one moment. Flowey didn't really know how to comfort them, so he continued to wait patiently. Eventually, they became quieter and their breathing became regular again.

“It's alright Frisk. You're okay now-”

“No! I'm not okay!” The sobbing was done, but Frisk still had more they needed to shout to the heavens. “They're dead! The only people I've ever known and loved, and they were just gone in a day! I will _never_ be okay! I should have just gone with them...”

“Frisk.” The firmness in his voice got their attention as they continued to sniff through his words. “Tell me, please. Did they love you as much as you loved them?”

Frisk only nodded slowly.

“Then I think you know, they would not want you to go with them. They would want you to keep fighting, keep writing your story. I know I don't know the details of what happened, but I think you know that that would hold true regardless.” He saw enough of a response in their eyes to continue, with this speech procured from somewhere he was not aware of at the time. “Now I'll say again, I'm not going to force you to tell me what happened, but if you are in this much turmoil, please don't bottle it in. Whether you want to tell me, or maybe you can write a journal on your thoughts, whatever you want to do. Just don't keep it locked up, festering and causing more harm than it already has.”

“... Al... alright, Flowey...”

Frisk was a little surprised to feel a delicate vine wiping the tears off of their cheeks. “I don't know why I have this feeling like I have to take care of you, but as long as I do, I can't be having these meltdowns on a regular basis, alright?” There was something odd about the way he said that. The words were maybe too harsh, and were maybe delivered with too much of an attitude, but some underlying aspect of an unknown familiarity about it did well to comfort Frisk.

“Alright. I'll try not to let things build up any more,” they agreed. The two took their time gathering themselves before continuing on. Flowey had now extended his vine to Frisk's hand, who held it and found some more ease.

Eventually night began to fall, and they needed to make camp. “I'm guessing, based on the whole map thing, that you don't know how to light a fire either?” Frisk indicated in confirmation of Flowey's assumption, not citing the real reason they avoided doing that in their journey so far. “Well, I hope that sleeping bag of yours is warm, because on that one I honestly don't know either.” Once they had secured their belongings on a tree branch above, Frisk rolled out the sleeping bag and got in. Unexpectedly to him, they then invited him to take shelter there as well. “What? Look, I'm fine, you don't worry about me-”

“Flowey, is it any trouble? You just spent the whole day uprooted so I know that's not it.”

“... I guess it isn't.”

“You don't have to be this tough guy all the time. Honestly I'd get more than a little sick of you pretty quickly.” He chuckled a little at that one. “Can I just have your company? That would mean the world to me right now.”

“Alright, alright. I give.” The flower carefully hoisted himself into the sleeping bag next to Frisk, immediately finding it to be worlds more comfortable than sleeping on the ground as he had been doing. Flowey was the first to fall asleep, with Frisk following soon after. Observing the scene from the outside, one would be fooled to think that they slept peacefully that night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I don't really have much to say about this chapter. It's here, so here you go. It's alright I think, if uneventful in the grand scheme of things. Next chapter should see stuff really starting to get into gear.
> 
> Yeah you know the thing I normally say at the end of these with leaving a comment with your feedback. If you liked the story, tell me. If you hated it, tell me, and why! These are things that motivate me and help me to get better as a writer, knowing what sticks the landing and what falls flat.
> 
> In other news, I watched a few episodes of that Punisher series (Marvel) and some stuff from that made me think of a pretty in-depth idea for a fic that I don't want to ignore, so I'm experimenting and seeing if I want to do something with that. If I do, you'll know where to find it.

**Author's Note:**

> Alright alright alright, looks like we have a story on our hands with this thing. I did say I had ideas I wanted to get back to with this AU, so (albeit 13 months later) get back I have. This will be not too long a story, somewhere around 3-8 chapters I think. As ever, I would greatly appreciate hearing what you guys think about the story, and criticisms (I looove criticisms, gets me out of bed in the morning)! I am having quite a bit of fun writing this one, and the ideas I'm having for it I don't think deserve to be the ones I shelf, so here it is.


End file.
